CHILDREN at Bromsgrove School watched live as their school mascot was launched into outer space.

After weeks of anticipation, Bromsgrove Bear was rocketed to a height of 35km, wearing his red school jumper, before crashing back to Earth and landing in Louth.

Year two pupils were able to watch the flight from the comfort of their classroom, thanks to a video camera mounted to the stuffed toy.

Bromsgrove Advertiser:

Kate Western, deputy headteacher at Bromsgrove Pre-Prep School, said: "'The children have loved this exciting topic which has involved designing, making and launching rockets and astronaut training. The launching of Bromsgrove Bear into space was a fantastic finish to our learning journey, 'One Small Step'. Hopefully we have inspired budding young astronauts of the future."

A competition was held in the lead up to the mission for children to predict where the bear would land, with each student plotting a coordinate onto a map of the UK.

A GPS tracker enabled the class to track the bear's journey and find out which student's guess was closest.

Six-year-old Daisy Apperley guessed within 10km of Bromsgrove Bear's landing site and was awarded a 'mission patch', similar to the one worn by Neil Armstrong and Tim Peake.

Bromsgrove Bear is now safely back at Bromsgrove School.